


Baby Diary - Eighth Month - Little Boy Canvas

by mistressterably



Series: No rest for the wicked [25]
Category: The Thick of It (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, family life, kids being kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 18:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11675079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistressterably/pseuds/mistressterably





	Baby Diary - Eighth Month - Little Boy Canvas

‘Malcolm, I’m off to school with Mia.’ Dani poked her head into his office. 

Covering the mouthpiece of his phone, Malcolm blew her a kiss. ‘Where’s Gracie at?’

‘In her room, colouring. Alec is in his crib, sleeping. We’ll be a few hours remember. It’s the parent volunteer morning before actual school year starts.’

‘I know. Have fun with Mia today.’ Malcolm went back to his conference call on the weeks plans for the paper’s columns with McNiall. 

Gracie finished colouring her page with a big bunny on it and took the book into Malcolm’s office to show it to her father with pride. ‘Daddy, look! I did it for Alec!’

Malcolm had to quickly cover the mouthpiece of the phone to not let the rest of the conference call hear that his daughter was in his office as well. ‘Shh, Gracie. Daddy is working.’

‘Sorry, daddy.’ Gracie whispered and walked over to his side. Without another word she just held the book up to him. Malcolm, grateful that the conference call had moved to the sports news of the week, took the book from his daughter and smiled at the colourful bunny. ‘Alec should like?’

Hand still over the mouthpiece, ‘Alec will love it. Why don’t you go see if your brother is awake and show it to him.’

‘What if he’s asleep?’

‘Maybe you could colour some more?’

‘Could I colour in Alec’s room?’

‘If he’s asleep you have to colour quietly.’

‘I will, daddy.’ Gracie took her colouring book back from Malcolm and left the office. She headed back upstairs and carefully edged the door open to the nursery. Alastair was fast asleep in his crib. Gracie sighed as she stood and watched her brother sleep soundly. Her attention was very quickly drawn away from the sleeping boy and back to Malcolm’s permission for her to colour in Alastair’s room. To Gracie that meant anywhere in Alastair’s room. She returned to her room and got her box of washable markers. They were her favourites and were nice and bright.

‘Alec?’ Gracie whispered but her brother slept on still. 

At first, Gracie was content to stretch out on the floor to colour but it didn’t last all that long. Gazing through the bars of the crib, Gracie watched Alec sleep. Deciding she wanted to be closer to her brother, she turned back to her colouring book and markers and got them through the bars of the crib. Alastair continued sleeping.

Gracie found the stepstool that Mia always used when she was giving their parents a hand with changing or cleaning up Alastair. It was just high enough for Gracie to leverage herself up over the crib’s bars to drop onto the mattress. Alastair lifted his hands to his eyes to rub at them but dropped them back and carried on sleeping. Gracie lay on her tummy beside her brother in the crib, her markers spread about for her to grab and colour her latest page in her book. 

A soft sigh broke her lips as she finished the page and thought about what she wanted to do next. Daddy must still be on the phone, she thought. He hadn’t come upstairs yet and that’s what he always did when he finished his calls. She smiled at the thought of her daddy. Alastair yawned and stretched in his sleep before his right hand rested on his chest. Gracie picked up her red marker. Without thinking, Gracie gently drew a line along one of Alastair’s fingers. He didn’t wake.

This was a great new way to colour, Gracie thought. The one line on Alastair’s finger soon became five lines connecting to a circle on the back of his hand. Tiring of red, Gracie went next for green and began drawing squiggles up his little arm to the edge of the arm of his sleeper. The marker tickled the boy’s skin. 

‘Ahcee’ Alastair’s eyes opened and he smiled at his sister. His little hands went out to her and she leaned forward to hug him. ‘Ma ba da’

‘I love you too, Alec.’ Gracie cuddled him close. ‘Look at you. You got colour.’

Alastair didn’t really care but was happy to sit up and play along with Gracie. 

His giggles got infectious as Gracie kept using different colours to draw up and down his arms. When the little girl decided to start drawing a line around the neckline of his sleeper, Alastair was clapping happily. 

Malcolm could hear the noises of his two youngest but he was stuck on the conference call a bit longer. When it finally ended, Malcolm hung up and stretched his arms to work out the kinks in his back. He was definitely not a sitter anymore. Running around after 3 kids kept him from getting comfortable behind a desk any longer. A round of giggles coming over the baby monitor got his full attention and he figured it was time to see what the youngsters were up to.

‘What in the….’ Malcolm stood in the nursery doorway, his mouth agape in momentary shock.. ‘Gracie!’

‘Da da!’ Alastair sat there with his big smile and grabbing hands. The bright multi-coloured lines and squiggles and splodges of colours dotted his arms, his legs and around his neck. 

‘Daddy!’ Gracie put the cap on her blue marker and stood up in the crib. ‘Alec wanted to colour with me.’

‘Gracie, you used your brother as a colouring book.’ Malcolm ran his hands through his hair. ‘You were drawing on your brother! You don’t draw on your brother!’

‘But he liked it, daddy. He laughed a lot. I liked it too.’

‘No drawing on your brother, no more!’ Malcolm plucked his daughter from the crib and set her on the floor. ‘And you really aren’t supposed to be climbing into the crib either.’

‘Did I do bad, daddy?’ Gracie, her hands behind her back, looked up at Malcolm on the verge of breaking into tears.

Malcolm had lifted Alastair from the crib to gently rub at the colouring on his son’s arm. ‘You did do bad, Gracie. Skin isn’t a colouring page.’

Gracie sniffled loudly and tears began to stream down her cheeks in silence. ‘I’m sorry, daddy. I never do it again!’ She went up to him and hugged him around the legs.

‘Promise me, little lady.’ 

‘I promise, daddy. Forever and ever.’

‘Good. Now, you are going to help me bathe your brother and clean up this marker.’

‘Okay, daddy.’

Malcolm followed Gracie into the washroom, Alastair happily clung to his father. He sat the boy on the counter for the moment. Unable to resist, he pulled out his mobile and quickly took a photo of his colourful son to show Dani. Without a photo he doubted she would believe him when he told her about this.


End file.
